Paper short abstract:

In this paper I examine how artistic practices in Hong Kong navigate and mobilize composite scales of aesthetics, ecology and politics. Through urban farming, art collective Farms for Democracy effectively tie the everyday bodily experience of eating into the fight for democratic representation.

Paper long abstract:

In the autumn of 2014 thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to demand 'real democracy'. Various different citizen groups participated in the protests known as the Umbrella Movement and Occupy Central, here amongst the artist collective Farms for Democracy who has set up a camp - or rather, a garden - a long with hundreds of others by the government building at Central. The link may not be obvious, however in a Hong Kong setting the connection between farming, the fight for democracy and the potential of participatory art practices is much more straightforward. Their artistic participation is based on deep concern for the environment, access to nature and secure food production, however, with growing political control from the Beijing government Hong Kong citizens are loosing their very right to raise such concerns.

In this paper I will examine how this artistic practice, immersed in local contestations and apprehensions can be seen as navigating the composite scales of local environmental concern and faraway political encroachment. Through an STS and ANT-informed reading I will argue, that in mobilising urban farming and the intimacy of hearty foods, Farms for Democracy is effectively tying the everyday bodily experience of eating (and food security) into the fight for democratic representation.